A referendum on our future
By Wong Chin Huat (The Nut Graph)
Voters in Bukit Gantang will actually be voting for something much larger: they will decide whether Malaysia should follow in the footsteps of Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The decision of Bukit Gantang voters will be a referendum on a Malaysia free of coups — or a Malaysia with recurring coups.
THE Bukit Gantang by-election has one overriding meaning.
The by-election for this parliamentary seat in Perak is not about local development, as the Barisan Nasional (BN) would describe it. Neither will the election results determine Datuk Seri Najib Razak's job as prime minister, as some opposition supporters would hope for.
Voters in Bukit Gantang will actually be voting for something much larger: they will decide whether Malaysia should follow in the footsteps of Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The decision of Bukit Gantang voters will be a referendum on a Malaysia free of coups — or a Malaysia with recurring coups.
Police in Bukit Gantang on nomination day (29 March), guarding the border between rival party supporters
Most detrimental
The most detrimental thing about the Perak coup was not the defection of three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers. Neither was it the installment of a government whose avowed mission is the defence of ketuanan Melayu.
After all, lawmakers must be allowed to revolt against their own party in parliamentary democracies so long as voters are also allowed to reward or penalise their revolt. Similarly, while ultra-nationalist regimes are bad for society, the electorate has every right to choose an undesirable outcome in a democracy.
The real crime in Perak is this: the party that lost in the 2008 general election, i.e. the Barisan Nasional (BN), refused to accept its defeat. Instead, it struck back with unelected agents to seize and hold on to power.
Denying Perak citizens the choice of deciding who should represent them, the BN staged a coup d'état, a treason against democracy.
What's the problem?
Regardless of whether a coup involves the use of military power or the ideology it represents, a coup is wrong because it denies citizens the right to choose their government.
Under a coup, you still have to pay taxes. But you no longer are able to determine whose paycheck you sign. The people are no longer sovereign. Instead, they become like victims of a mafia who must pay "protection fees" but have no right to decide who should run the mafia.
Read more at: http://www.thenutgraph.com/referendum-on-our-future
